I finally listed some items on ebay. Eight items to be exact. Now I have my fingers crossed for 8 sales!

I've been away from ebay for awhile. I think my craigslist success brought back my motivation. That and the upcoming holidays!

While I'm here I will update my Ebay Challenge Sales:

Oct Total = $42 (so far!)
Sept Total = $110.00
June Total = $55.25
May Total = $197.75
April Total = $22.22
March Total = $83.13
February Total = $66.50
January Total = $4.95

I sold the roller skates on ebay. Net proceeds $9.13! Can't complain. I made out pretty good on the other pair through craigslist. I have added this money to the Ebay Challenge totals below.

June Total = $55.25
May Total = $197.75
April Total = $22.22
March Total = $83.13
February Total = $66.50
January Total = $4.95

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I have added the proceeds of the sale to the Disney Vacation Fund.

Our new total is: $1977.00!!

I'm going to list at least one item on ebay later today.

Last week I sold two items on ebay. My net proceeds were $11.12. I will add this to the ebay challenge money.

June Total = $46.12
May Total = $197.75
April Total = $22.22
March Total = $83.13
February Total = $66.50
January Total = $4.95

My monthly average is currently $70.11. I'm still not hitting the $100 goal I set, but I have no complaints!

In my last post I mentioned that I had some roller skates on craigslist. They have been listed for a couple of weeks. Today, after I mentioned it in my post, I received an email inquiring about them.

The best news: The woman just picked them up and paid me $35 cash!!

I'll add this to the Mickey stash.

I will also add this to the Ebay Challenge money. Here's the update:

June Total = $35.00
May Total = $197.75
April Total = $22.22
March Total = $83.13
February Total = $66.50
January Total = $4.95

I'm adding my garage sale proceeds to the ebay challenge. So far, I have not even listed anything on ebay this month. I do have a few things I could sell, so I will try to get those up this week.

May Total = $197.75
April Total = $22.22
March Total = $83.13
February Total = $66.50
January Total = $4.95

My monthly average is now $74.91. I'm still not to my goal of $100/month. However, I have plenty of time to work on it!!

My net for the ebay sales this last week was $22.22! Fun number.

Here are the ebay challenge numbers for the all of 2009 thus far:

April Total = $22.22
March Total = $83.13
February Total = $66.50
January Total = $4.95

My goal had been to average $100 a month. Obviously, that is so NOT happenning. If you could see my home, you would know that there is not a lot of excess here.

Really.

We are having a garage sale in May, so maybe that will increase my average.

Every little bit helps and I am grateful for it all.

I sold some of the girls outgrown clothes on ebay. Gross sales totaled $26.14. Not bad, and still better than a garage sale.

I will put this towards our Disney World vacation!!

I got nine items listed on ebay last night. The crazy thing was one of them had a bid in less than 10 minutes! Someone must have been looking for that item just then.

I now have two items with bids...and watchers on a few of the others.

I will update you next week with my final numbers.

Anyone else ebaying this week?

Oh yeah...that's what is going on here!

I'm up to my ankles in ebay listings. Pictures come first! At least for me they do. It takes a few takes sometimes.

The cats. This one thinks she's cute. Yes. She is!

Now that I have pictures, I'm going to begin each individual listing in Turbo Lister. That is a free software program you can download from ebay. For me it is quicker than doing each listing online. I also like uploading all my listings at the same time...so that they end at the same time. I like things NEAT and TIDY!!

With Turbo Lister, I don't even need to upload the listings today. I could wait for another day if I so chose. I'd better get back to it.

I'm finally off to a good start on ebay. My auctions just ended. I sold 8 out of 9 items. My auctions total $63.13!!

That was fun!

March Total = $83.13
February Total = $66.50
January Total = $4.95

The March total includes $20 for a metal bed frame I sold on craigslist on Friday. At least my totals are increasing!

I'm looking forward to a garage sale, too. It's a good place to put items that can't be sold on ebay...or don't sell on ebay!

I just posted an ad on craigslist for a metal bed frame. I have someone who wants to pick it up tonight!!

I'm selling it for $20! It will be nice to get that out of the basement.

Crossing fingers that they actually show up, too.

UPDATE: She showed up! An extra $20 in my pocket always feels good.

I have 9 items listed on ebay. The auctions end on Sunday. So far, I have three bids, 4 with watchers and 2 with no activity.

Overall, I'm pleased. I expect most of them to sell, if only for the list price. I will probably relist any that do not sell.

I'm looking forward to reporting my sales!

I'm really motivated to get this home equity loan paid off this year. It can be done. I REALLY like looking forward to mini milestones, such as nice round numbers.

We just surpassed the $9,000 mark. Now that I'm there, I'm focused on getting as close to $8K as I can by the end of the month. Then after that I will be looking at $7K and so forth.

In order to get under $8K this month, I need to be careful with spending as usual. I need to be aggressive in finding things to sell. This will also require convincing my daughters they no longer need their My Little Ponies and other such toys they no longer play with!! That can be the most difficult part.

I hope that my Global Test Marketing check for $50 arrives this month,too. That would sure help a lot. I have almost accumulated $25 in debit rewards and should be able to redeem those by the end of the month, too.

I have a queen metal bed frame hanging out in my basement that would bring $10-$15 if I can get it listed on craigslist.

I already have 1 bid for an item on ebay. There are still 8 waiting for bids with a few of them being watched. They don't end until Sunday.

When I think about all the monetary possibilities out there, I feel pretty confident that we can meet this months goal. A big portion of it will come from the next pay check in about 10 days.

I'm sure I'll spend the month scrounging around to make a few more dollars here and there. I just love this, stuff!

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Just a side note: I'm finally back on the exercise bandwagon. Two days in a row at the gym. I do feel better.

I made a principal payment of $75 towards our home equity loan. I know...I just can't stop, can I? It's kind of addictive!!

The money is from selling used books, my two gold rings, ebay sales, a half.com sale and a Pinecone check. A little here and there adds up!!

New Balance = $8,725

I'd love to get this balance below $8,000 by the end of March. Think I can do it?

I used Turbo Lister yesterday to prepare 9 items for ebay listing. I will load them up this evening to start things off for March.

I found two spring dresses, two pairs of jeans, a windbreaker, a jean jacket, two spring sweaters and a pair of capris to sell. It's kind of nice that the kids grow, so that I can sell on ebay. Of course, I buy them newer clothes when this happens! It is just a cycle.

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DH and I will measure our living room window today so we can order faux wood blinds. They are on sale at justblinds dot com. The bamboo blinds that came with the house just don't work for me. They will be sold at our garage sale in the spring. The blinds will cost about $150 because it is a large window!! I have set aside money this month for this purpose.

I sold my gold. Gold jewelry. Two rings, only 10K gold. One was my high school class ring. Does anyone ever wear these after high school?

I decided with gold prices as high as they were, I'd rather have the cash than the jewelry. Both rings have been sitting in my jewelry box for 15 years or more.

Oh, you want to know how much cash I received? $31.50. I'm glad I waited because back in October or November I was quoted $25. So, it paid a little bit to wait.

I actually had to wait in line and they had three people working. All but one person was in there selling gold jewelry. All women, too! One woman was quoted $777! Another received over $250. They had some nice stuff, too. But, if you don't wear it, what is the point?

I also had to sign a police report and show my driver's license since I was technically pawning my gold!! Good thing mine wasn't stolen.

I will add this to the Ebay Challenge money.

February Total = $66.50
January Total = $4.95

I guess I'm impatient. I decided to take the items I had on half.com to the used book store. I sold it all for $13.

The items I had were generally going for $.75 a piece on half.com and there were hundreds listed. My chances of selling them at all were slim.

I'm not sure how many items I took because I threw in a fair number of recent magazines at the last minute. I'm sure it was less than $.50 an item, but I feel good about it.

I feel good because I have decluttered, put items back into the economy for purchase, kept items out of the landfill and best of all received a little cash.

I also went for a walk on this glorious day and picked up 15 cans/bottles that I can take in for redemption. That will add $0.75 to my wallet.

February Total $35.00
January Total $4.95

I do have three things to list on ebay, but they will have to be added to the total in March.

I had two items end this afternoon. Both sold!! I have another $13.50 to add to the 2009 Ebay Challenge.

February Total to Date = $21.25
January Total = $4.95

I had hoped to find more to sell, but thus far I am coming up empty. Remember how much I sold last year? That kind of explains it, but I will keep looking.

I'm excited for all of you that are doing so well. Keep up the good work!!

I'm excited both of my items I have listed on ebay this week will sell!! They each have bids. One has several people watching, too.

I still have over 4 days until the listings end. I hope to find a few more items to sell and post before the weekend ends.

Good luck everyone!

I sold two of four items on Sunday for a total of $7.75. Those items have been shipped.

Today I added two more items. One already has a bid...within the first hour of listing!

February Total To Date: $7.75
January Total $4.95

I did get a late start, but my January total stands at:

$4.95!

I have four items ending tomorrow. A bid on one and a few watchers on the other. The other two may not sell.

It's a start. I'm sure I'll make up for it in later months! Keep up the good work everyone.

I sold my first item for 2009 on ebay today!! A pair of girls jeans for $4.95! This could be my total for January. I have one other item that could sell early. Out of the four items left, two are being watched.

The other challenge? Mooshocker has started at 2009 Mortgage Payment Challenge to see who can pay the most towards principal. I'm in. We are paying extra on our home equity loan already. The minimum we will pay off is $7,000. But we just might pay the whole thing off. Wouldn't that be cool!!

I will track the extra principal paid each month on the sidebar. Good luck everyone

I listed 5 items for sale on ebay tonight. They won't end until February...but at least I did start in January!!

I hope that ending on Super Bowl Sunday will be a plus for me. Here's to a week of big sales!

My regular home equity loan payment will be posted today. About $40 will probably go to principal. I will update the ticker when the new balance is posted.

After all other bills have been paid it looks like I can send in an additional $410 to the home equity loan next week. That will definitely put the balance below the $13K mark! I'm looking forward to it.
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I joined the 2009 Ebay Challenge, but other than listing a couch on craigslist, I haven't listed anything else. Part of my problem is that I sold off so much stuff last year!! I'm sure there are things to sell, they just aren't as obvious. Time to dig deep!

I posted a couch we want to get rid of on craigslist for $100. I've been trying off and on to get rid of it since last spring. Maybe I'll get someone to bite this time! Keep your fingers crossed.

I finished Suze Orman's new book. I basically skimmed it since many of the things did not apply to me. No credit card debt, no foreclosure, slim to zero chance of layoff. I'm not evening thinking of leaving the stock market. I don't think I'm her target audience!!

I'm trying to keep track of money flowing in. As of now, I have received money from the garage sales, ebay sales, DH travel, and a gift card.

In the next few days, I expect to see some interest payments and some cash from craigslist sales. Several of those are pending today and I just put them up yesterday. Today I plan to get more things ready for ebay.

I am also saving all the mysurvey points towards $30 cash. Our debit card gives us cash back and we should be getting $50 in a few weeks.

All totalled up that is over $400 in cash flowing in, besides our regular paycheck. I'm saving all this money to purchase gifts for Christmas. It is definitely not too early to start thinking about that, right?

Anyone remember way back to April when we bought our new HDTV at cost from my BIL? We'll today the $200 rebate finally came in the mail.

I've never had a rebate come back so slowly. Or, maybe I have. When it's $200, you keep track of it just a little closer than if it was $2.00. Well, I do anyway.

Thrilled to finally have it, too. It is arriving at a great time, with a few travel trips ahead of us and a birthday this weekend. Just a nice cushion of cash to have available if needed.

I would really like to see it go to the home equity loan, but I will need to wait to see how a few things shake out.

Off to put it into the bank...via online deposit. I love it!!

Our bank, provides rewards on our debit card transactions. I just cashed points for cash...$50 cash!! Just for spending like we usually do.

New $20 Challenge Balance: $868.31

We've been contributing monthly to our retirement accounts. We plan to max out our Roth's this year at $5K each. My husband is contributing 4% to his TSP...the government's version of a 401K.

I track the balances on a irregular basis...especially since the market hasn't been so great. Today I checked and things are beginning to move up...we've hit a new high of over $88K invested! Such a nice feeling to be approaching the $100K mark. It would be nice to have that number by the end of the year. I think it is possible if the market starts to rebound, if just a little.

I sold a desk today. It had been on my garage sale and had only one looker. I had it priced for $10. Since it didn't sell at the garage sale, I listed on craigslist for $15!

A college student came and picked it up today and paid the $15. Such a slick easy way to sell things, without fees, too!

Now if my couch would just sell!

New $20 Challenge Balance: $818.31

I had a garage sale with two neighbors on Thursday and Friday. We had great weather and lots of buyers!! Our total take for all was $798.50. My portion was $270.50!! That is my best garage sale return EVER.

I had so much fun! It is a lot of work, but I enjoy seeing and talking to the people. I love to see what people buy. I like the negotiation. I love it all.

I even joked with my girlfriends that I would love to be paid to set up other people's garage sales. Do you think anyone would pay for that service?

We saved our signs and will consider having another sale in the fall. One neighbor still has a house full of things to sell off. I plan to use ebay and craigslist over the summer to sell a few remaining items.

I will add this to my $20 Challenge.

New Balance: $803.31

Oh, and a before sale picture! I wish I took an after...it is amazing how much we cleared out.